Huawei chief executive Richard Yu walks past his presentation on Huawei's wearable collection. (Photo : Reuters)
Top electronics company Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has begun international sales of its flagship wearable on Wednesday at a tech expo in Berlin, six months after it was made known to the public.
The Chinese company's much-awaited move has placed it far behind its much-bragged competitor, the Apple Watch--the not-so flawless gadget which industry experts still see has a strong lead in the market.
The Huawei Watch, which runs on Google Inc.'s proprietary operating system designed for wearable devices known as Google Wear, is expected to be sold for over $350.
Amazon.com lists the entry-level item to be having a stainless steel face and a black leather strap, with the watch's most expensive model sporting a gold-plated stainless steel panel and band.
The newcomer in the smartwatch market will be released in developed areas including the United States, Japan and Germany, according to the firm's Twitter account.
However, the gadget is not likely to be available in Huawei's home territory and largest market for its mobile phones for some time.
According to Canalys China analyst Wang Jingwen, Huawei may face hardships with its launch since not all Android Wear features exist on the Chinese mainland.
Despite the fallback, Google has said that the Android Wear will be compatible with Apple Inc.'s iOS, which implies that iPhone users will also be able to use the watch with the smartphone.
"Huawei needs to build in localized features for China, so losing Android Wear functions will not cause damage to product function," Wang said.
Motorola, now a subsidiary of Lenovo Group Ltd., also intended to commence sales of its wearable Moto 360 on mainland China last year, but faced problems with the impaired Android Wear functions, causing the launch date to still be undecided.
Huawei reached $9.09 billion in revenues from its consumer business unit during the first half of the year, an outstanding 69-percent year-on-year increase, the corporation said in July.
Apple has worked out its way to selling 3.6 million first-gen Apple Watches that came with less than a day in battery life, in the second quarter, falling short of Fitbit's 4.4 million, according to research company IDC.
Fitbit's costliest product is being sold for under 2,000 yuan ($314) against the lowest-priced Apple Watch at 2,588 yuan.
Huawei had solely been selling its 999-yuan TalkBand wearable lineup until Wednesday, but has encountered difficulty in selling them to non-Huawei smartphone owners.
The firm has struggled in competition with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which had 600,000 wearables shipped in the second quarter, IDC said.
